During a race, members of the Virginia women's rowing team are in charge of pulling their glorified toothpick of a boat over 2,000 meters of water in less time than it takes to walk to class. Caitlin Mixter's job is to yell at them. A lot.
Power 10s, stroke ratings, power trains and cadences -- Mixter's bag of tricks includes all of them. As one of four varsity coxswains (coxes for short) in charge of commanding a lightning-fast shell on race day, the senior from Oakton, Va. knows her scholarship depends on getting some of Charlottesville's grittiest athletes to respect and trust her judgment -- even though her 5-foot-2? frame could easily fit in one of their gym bags.
It's as if Gary Coleman is telling Warren Sapp to "put some more muscle into it."
"The coxswain is like the jockey of the crew, so we harness all the power," Mixter said. "We have the job of getting everyone on the same page mentally and physically and we try to get the girls to do everything together. We're the mini-coach and the driving force."
Seated in the rear of one of one of Virginia's nationally ranked varsity boats, Mixter commands eight pairs of arms and legs while steering her crew away from pesky obstacles like bridges and other humans.
"Technically, the girls aren't supposed to be looking out of [the] boat at all, just staring at the teammate in front of them," Mixter said. "They don't know where they are in course or where they are compared to the other boats. I'm their eyes and ears telling them everything that's going on around them. By the end of the race they are so physically tired that they can't even think, so you end up becoming the brain for eight people too."
Because coach Kevin Sauer can't be in the boats himself during practices and races, Mixter and her fellow coxes are the authority on the water. Running the team through drills and keeping her athletes on track, the senior steps into a role that exists on virtually no other sports team.
"It's a really hard job because you're on almost the authority level of a coach but you're also a member of the team," Mixter said. "It's difficult to walk the fine line between telling the girls what to do and helping them to do it with you. Some coxswains can go on a power trip. It's easy -- you've got all this authority and you're the only one who's ever allowed to talk in the boat."
As the only voice in the heads of Virginia's elite rowers, Mixter also has to find the best way to motivate each girl individually while earning their trust.
"You really have to get inside the minds of each of the rowers to know what motivates them, their personality," Mixter said. "I try to use the girls' names a lot in the boat so when they hear their name, they get going. Part of a coxswain's job is to alter the tone of your voice, too. If you're just barking at them all the time, they're going to stop listening."
Once a race begins, Mixter's job is a little like juggling (while flying down a river in a saucepan). If she doesn't steer the boat in a straight line while keeping up the right number of strokes per minute and motivating the crew to push during specific points in the race, Virginia's day could be over.
"Steering is the number one thing that a coxswain has to do," Mixter said. "You could be really great in what you're saying, but if you're swerving all over the place, the girls are going to hate you. The shortest course is a straight line, and if you're not going straight, you're having them row way longer than they need to."
When she's steering the scull away from certain doom, Mixter is in charge of throwing in speed bursts to pull the Cavaliers ahead. These include "power 10s" (10 extra-strong strokes at a time), "power trains" (the rowers take five strong strokes for each pair in the boat) and setting goals for gaining a certain distance in a certain number of strokes.
During the past four years, Mixter has earned her keep. The Cavalier rowers are consistently one of the strongest teams in the region, coming in second at the national championships last year as a team. The "Wahoos on the Water" have also won eight straight ACC titles. Try to get the football team to match that.
For Mixter, the winning hasn't been all good news, since the coxswain is traditionally tossed into the water after a big win. "It's like pouring ice over a football coach," she said. "But the other girls end up jumping in after you anyway"
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